The present invention relates to door mechanisms on storage units, such as for partition-mounted binder bins. However, it should be understood that a scope of the present invention is not limited to only partition-mounted storage units.
It is desirable to counterbalance a weight of doors on binder bins so that the doors do not swing closed with a hard action. Further, it is desirable to bias a door into a fully open or fully closed position for aesthetic and ergonomic reasons and also so that the door does not accidentally fall from the open position toward the closed position. However, such biasing devices are generally not available or are undesirably complex. One reason is because an operative weight of the door changes as the door moves between its opened and closed positions, such that it is difficult for a single mechanism to satisfy the force requirements near the open position and at the same time near the closed position. For example, in a door pivoted to a sidewall of a binder bin, the operative weight of the door is at its maximum when the door is near the closed position, because the center of gravity of the door is farthest forward of the pivot point. Contrastingly, when the door is near its opened position, the operative weight is relatively low because the center of gravity of the door is closest to the pivot point.
Accordingly, an apparatus is desired having the aforementioned advantages and that solves the aforementioned problems.
The present invention includes a method of biasing a cover member of a furniture unit between open and closed positions. The method includes steps of attaching a biasing element to the cover member at a first attachment point, and attaching the biasing element to an anchor member at a second attachment point, the anchor member being operably coupled to the furniture unit. The method further includes translatingly moving one of the first and second attachment points from a first position to a second position as the cover member is moved from an open position to a closed position, and still further includes translatingly moving the one attachment point from the second position to the first position as the cover member is moved from the closed position to the open position. The two steps of translatingly moving the one attachment point occur relatively sudden and have the effect of changing an effective length of a torque arm defined by the biasing element. The biasing element biases the cover member with a first biasing force when the one attachment point is in the second position to positively close the cover member, and further the biasing element biases the cover member with a second biasing force when the one attachment point is in the first position to positively open the cover member.
In another aspect of the present invention, a method includes steps of providing a biasing element operably attached between a binder bin and a cover member, with the biasing element providing a continuous counter-balancing force to the cover member both when opening and closing the cover member on a front of the binder bin, the biasing element including an anchorage member. The method further includes opening the cover member, with the biasing element providing the counter-balancing force, and suddenly shifting the anchor member as the cover member reaches a near-open position so that the counter-balancing force changes substantially to more positively move the cover member from the near-open position to a full-open position. The method also includes closing the cover member, with the biasing element providing the counter-balancing force, and suddenly shifting the anchor member as the cover member reaches a near-closed position so that the balancing force changes substantially to more positively move the cover member from the near-closed position to a full-closed position.
These and other features, objects, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to a person of ordinary skill upon reading the following description and claims together with reference to the accompanying drawings.